


my soul a raging storm

by LullabyDance



Category: Batman (Comics), Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Identity Reveal, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Minor Violence, Soul Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:20:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26069371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LullabyDance/pseuds/LullabyDance
Summary: A huge storm is raging over Blüdhaven.Nightwing is missing.Jason volunteers to walk into the storm, lies on his tongue and a second heartbeat in his chest.What he discovers could change everything but is it enough to find Dick and stop the storm?
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Jason Todd
Comments: 6
Kudos: 108
Collections: JayDick Summer Exchange 2020





	my soul a raging storm

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Witchy_Clover](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Witchy_Clover/gifts).



> this turned out a lot less fluffy than i wanted but it was a lot of fun to write  
> a big thank you to empires for the beta <3
> 
> i hope you enjoy this witchy_clover!

Jason has always loved the rain. When he was little he would climb onto the window sill, pressing his small face and chubby hands against the cool glass and watch the rain fall. It was calming, the pitter-patter of the drops against the window a soothing lullaby just for him.  
But even better than just the rain are the storms with lightning opening cracks in the sky like wounds and thunder drumming through his bones like the heartbeat of a great beast. Jason never feels more alive, never more real, than when the storm is raging around him.

Now it's the only thing some days that will assure him that he's not still buried seven feet under, with no hope of ever seeing the sky again. 

Before, before death, before the pit and a rage so all-consuming it swallows him whole, there would be nights on patrol when the storm would get so bad, even Batman couldn't go on in it. Batman would make that specific upset grumble he did when he was stopped from delivering justice by things out of his control (or Alfred), and order Robin to follow him back to the batmobile. Jason would always stop for a second on the edge of a roof and look up, up, up and just feel the wind throwing the rain against his face and pulling at his body, a siren call so strong, it would speak to the little bundle of something in his chest that was bursting with a wild feral joy and the feeling would surge in time with every strike of lightning.

Jason knows this isn't a normal thing to feel, in fact he's sure people usually don't feel like this at all about anything really. He learned to keep it hidden away, a secret to keep from everyone because it isn't normal. He remembers trying to explain it once to his mom, when he was still too young to know that not everyone had a little ball of feeling nestled in their chest, right next to their heart. 

Catherine had looked at him, glassy eyed and afraid because she didn't, _couldn't_ , understand what he was talking about. It must have been scary to hear your son talk about something as dangerous as a thunder storm as a living thing he wanted to run into and embrace with open arms. 

Maybe that was the reason he took to being Robin so easily, flying through the air, kicking and punching criminals with everything he had, it felt the closest he could get to letting go and giving in to what it would be like to follow the call of the storm.

This is the reason why he volunteered to go on this mission. It didn’t matter that everyone looked at him like he was crazy, it didn’t matter that Bruce, and it was Bruce not Batman, _Bruce_ , looked at him with resignation and something else Jason refused to name. He had gotten very good at ignoring the many ways Bruce looked at him. It was easier that way.

Somebody had to go and it might as well be him because they hadn’t heard of Nightwing ever since the big magical storm had manifested over Blüdhaven and while the others are worried and afraid for Dick, which will cloud their judgement if they go in, Jason isn’t. Things like fear and worry have been beaten out of him by the Joker or lost in death and it makes him perfect for this job.

Jason has gotten very good at ignoring a lot of things.

He is armed with a Justice League Communicator that can send transmissions through thousands of lightyears of space - even if they all know that if the storm is magical in origin that won’t mean anything - and the small bundle of energy in his chest as his guide.  
But what Jason didn’t tell the rest of the family, is that he’s pretty sure the storm isn’t magical. It’s definitely unnatural but his theory was confirmed when he entered Blüdhaven and tested the communicator. It connected to Oracle’s secure channel without a hitch, which means the force of the storm simply knocked out the electricity and the charged atmosphere was interfering with any outgoing or incoming communications.

Of course this also means that Dick is probably fine and just being an obnoxious, self-sacrificing idiot by trying to stop whatever is causing the storm on his own without waiting for backup or at least getting word to them first that he’s okay.

It makes Jason grind his teeth and he wants to punch something, preferably Dick’s face, that Dick keeps trying to make them all get along and be a family and talk about all their ugly issues and hurt feelings like it will make them suddenly love each other instead of foster even more resentment, but never seems willing to share or ask for help himself.

Jason thought this family thing was supposed to be a two way street.

At least it won’t be hard to find him, he muses while he secures his bike in a small alley whose walls will shelter his bike from the worst of the wind and rain. He will have to go on foot from here, following the pull upwards onto the rooftops.

For once Jason follows the call of the storm, right into the worst of it, where the source of all of this will be and with it one stupid vigilante with no sense of self preservation.

Well, make that two now.

Above the streets the wind gains in intensity, with no houses to break its force, grabbing for Jason with rough invisible hands, trying to drag him off his feet and Jason doesn’t know how he keeps going, how he doesn’t fall and let the wind carry him away into the sky.

(He wants it to. It would be so easy to let himself trip and fall, let himself be swept up in the storm but Jason’s life has never been easy and he refuses to start doing things the easy way now.)

The closer he gets to the source, the more he realizes that the playfulness and joy that usually radiates from that place inside his chest has been replaced by a piercing fury so strong it could rival the raw strength of nature currently trying its very best to rip him and Blüdhaven apart.

The realization that it is in fact connected stops him dead, cold terror numbing his body to the rain drops battering him like a hail of bullets.

Whatever is creating this storm is very very angry.

And Jason is connected to it.

_Jason can feel it._

There is something on the other end of what he thought only lived as a weird pocket of feeling next to his heart. He realizes there are emotions of a foreign thing inside his chest and that is not a revelation he ever wanted to have.

He wants to turn around and leave, let somebody else figure out this mess because if he confronts this there is no going back.

But Dick is still in there. And as much as Jason would have once upon a time happily left Dick to his fate, he can’t anymore.

The ugly broken part of him that even the Lazarus Pit couldn’t fix hates that for all that he’s been dragged back into this family by Dick kicking and screaming, he cares for these people now even if he really really shouldn’t. They should have been strangers at best and enemies at worst. That part wants to go back to when Dick was just a rival, an impossible standard to beat, someone to admire and hate.

Jason would have spent even more time contemplating the complicated feelings that are tangled up in one Dick Grayson if the next gust of wind didn’t almost blow him off his feet. It’s getting harder and harder to move forward, an increasingly loud part of him wants to give in and let go.

Let the storm consume him. 

Before him one of the big billboards that dot the cityscape rises out of the rainy darkness, praising a restaurant at the pier for having ‘lobster-tastic’ food fresh from the harbor with a blonde model smiling a too wide smile, holding a lobster in the air. The dark gloom of the storm makes the billboard as a whole seem way creepier than Jason thinks it was originally intended to be. He also sincerely doubts that anything caught in Blüdhaven’s harbor can be safely eaten, let alone would taste good.

Behind it a large shadow is moving and indistinct shouts can be heard.

Another step and the wind abruptly dies down, and although the rain doesn’t let up one bit at least Jason doesn’t have to fight an impossibly strong invisible enemy anymore to keep standing.

He’s made it.

The eye of the storm.

The first thing he notices is the unfortunately familiar outfits of the dozen people surrounding something very angry and decidedly not human on the roof. They are from an organization that Jason, and the rest of the family, have been tracking the last few months.

There had been an unusual amount of disappearances of kids from the streets in multiple cities and it turned out these sick assholes were using the money they made from trafficking kids to fund the hunt and capture of magical beasts and supernatural monsters that they sold to the highest bidder.

Jason wants to put a bullet into every one of their heads.

But they are clearly not after kids right now, a few of them are holding what looks like high tech spears and others have heavily modified silver rifles in their hands that wouldn’t look out of place in a science fiction movie.

And that’s when Jason is finally close enough to clearly see through the rain what they have cornered.

The creature is huge, towering over the humans surrounding it, reminding Jason of a griffin, if a griffin was 20 feet tall and covered in ink black feathers, with sharp claws the size of Jason’s head and a deadly looking beak that could swallow a person whole. There are sparks of electricity jumping and running along the sleek body all the way to the long tail feathers that are swishing from one side to the other in an agitated motion.

Worst of all are the chains wrapped around the creature’s legs and wings, which explains why it hasn’t fled yet. Even folded close to its body the wings look enormous and Jason has no trouble imagining the powerful wing beats stirring up a storm.

Not that it seems to need them, because Jason knows from the desperate fury he can feel through his connection with the creature, that its emotions are strong enough to keep this storm going until all and every threat to it is gone.

Jason needs to help the creature, so he slowly inches closer, going for one of the goons standing at a metal box that is anchoring one of the chains in place. For the first time today he is glad for the rain, masking his approach.

A goon holding a spear suddenly makes a move, coming at the creature from behind, aiming at its belly. The spear hits the creature and although Jason can see no blood, it lets out a scream and thrashes in the holds of the chains. Jason can feel a sharp stab of pain beneath his breastbone and lunges forward to get the goon at the box.

The next few seconds are utter chaos, the goons shouting frantically at each other as they try to get the creature back under control. Jason chokes the goon until he passes out, turning toward the one who stabbed the creature but there’s a flash and electricity connects to the goon’s spear, electrocuting him.

Jason wildly looks around for the next best target and catches the creature’s gaze on him instead.

Time slows to a crawl.

Glowing electric blue eyes meet Jason’s for a breathtaking second as the rage inside Jason, the creature’s rage, reaches a breaking point.

A blinding lightning strike hits the creature, the chains around its wings and legs breaking, a howl neither animal nor human piercing the air, full of pain and rage that echoes in Jason’s chest, in his very soul.

He crumbles to the ground, ears ringing, trying to breathe through a pain that isn’t his own.

When he finally manages to stand back up, only the creature is still standing, its attackers all lying scattered across the roof. Jason can’t tell if the creature knocked them out or if they are dead. He knows what fate he is hoping for.

The creature is standing far too still for the explosion of emotion Jason witnessed just moments ago that made _literal lightning strike from the sky._

It is watching him with its unsettling blue eyes that seem way too familiar.

He knows those eyes.

He has seen those eyes before.

It was years ago, another stormy night at the manor, only a few days after Dick had come by to give Jason the Robin suit.

The storm had felt like a celebration to Jason, joy pulsing in time with his heartbeat from the ball in his chest, pulling at him playfully, calling to him until Jason had given in and snuck out of the window of the Manor and climbed up to the roof.

He had felt protected and at home up there, surrounded by the raw unbridled power of nature, thunder rolling overhead.

There was a tug in his chest that prompted him to turn his head and there was Nightwing, crouching on the roof a few feet away from him, almost indistinguishable from the shadows of the night.

When he caught Jason looking at him, he smiled, eyes glowing an otherworldly blue. He brought his finger up to his lips and winked at Jason, before taking a running start and leaping off the roof.

Jason had run to the edge, heart in his throat but couldn’t see Dick anywhere.

He had always thought it was a hallucination or a dream or maybe a tasteless prank.

It was real.

“Dick?” Jason keeps his voice low and calm, slowly reaching for the creature, but not yet touching.

Seconds stretch like sticky gum into an eternity as the creature watches him.

Finally it closes the gap between them, resting its shiny beak against Jason’s hand and closes its eyes.

A sigh reverberates through the still air.

The rain stops.

In front of Jason’s eyes the creature seems to deflate, black feathers and claws shrinking and disappearing, leaving only a very much human body behind. 

Jason barely manages to catch Dick because there is a wave of exhaustion crashing over him. Not all of it is his.

Carefully cradling Dick in his arms he lowers both of them to the ground, trying to ignore the way his body has started to shake from what has just transpired.

Apparently Dick can turn into a giant winged creature that can control lightning and storms.

What the fuck.

He has so many questions, especially about their connection that is still vibrating softly under his skin. It’s a comfort to him even after all that has happened.  
Dick’s breathing is slow and warm against his neck, he is clearly unconscious but he’s alive.

They’re alive.

The sun breaks through the clouds, light reflecting off the water still standing inches high on the rooftop.

Jason is soaked through to his bones, his whole body aches and he’s pretty sure he won’t be able to get up anytime soon but that’s okay.

He hugs Dick closer and buries his nose in Dick’s hair, breathing in the smell of ozone and summer rain.

“I’ve got you.”


End file.
